


Petroleum & Water

by Plinycapybara



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Country setting, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Fluff, Gen, Gen's car breaks down in the second chapter, Lots of it, M/M, More people will be in here later, Rural, West Virginia escapades, fried food, lots of them too, wind turbines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21824866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plinycapybara/pseuds/Plinycapybara
Summary: Senkuu’s new stepmother Lillian comes a family…a large, Southern one. And while Senkuu may have dreamed of going to space to explore another planet, he didn’t think that alien planet would be West Virginia.When Lillian and Byakuya get engaged, the pop-country star decides that they'll spend the summertime at her family's town while they live in Japan for the rest of the year. Though Senkuu has a difficult time adjusting to a rural town of 40 people.
Relationships: Chrome/Ruri, Ishigami Byakuya/Lillian Weinberg, Ogawa Yuzuriha/Ooki Taiju
Comments: 10
Kudos: 55





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Dr. Stone. If I did, I'd be able to pay off my student loans.  
> Based off a prompt by skygemspeaks: https://skygemspeaks.tumblr.com/post/189686838998/you-know-what-dr-stone-modern-au-where-all-the
> 
> I've been having writer's block for my original novel series and my poetry, so maybe taking a gander at some fanfic ideas I do have will get me out this rut I'm in.

Sure he and Byakuya were still going to live in Japan full-time, he didn’t have to move there; they just had to visit for one month every year during the summer after they got married. Lillian wanted a low-key family wedding without all the fuss of the media, so she was secretive about any details in interviews.

Of course, Lillian had told Byakuya who blabbed excitably about all the details to Senku, but luckily for the newly-engaged couple, the teen prodigy didn’t care about leaking any of the info to the media.

“ _I just dan’t wanna get my loved ones involved in all that drama, y’know? I just wanna have a nice time with the folks that made me who I am. I might have a big celebration afterward, but really deep down I guess I’m still a hometown girl. Sure, I could hire a big city caterer, have big names come to it, have a big giant cake the size of the moon, have everything big-big-big. But…that’s just ain’t who I am. It just wouldn’t feel right. I made a promise before my first major concert at 14 in Morgantown, home to my home state’s biggest university music program, to my aunt that she’d be the one that’d make my wedding cake, and I wanna keep that. She was my first official voice coach once she heard about how much all the kids on the street loved my singing. I owe it to her._ ”

When pop idol Lillian Weinberg posted her engagement photos with her and Byakuya in the ISS on her Instagram. The video of the engagement ring fluttering in zero-gravity until it moved towards Lillian, who slipped it on and embraced the Japanese astronaut got billions of views.

By the time the ISS returned, Bakuya was an international sensation and people were flocked to his university office. The school security had to actually train to themselves to deal with pesky paparazzi.

The world Senkuu inhabited was shattered like someone had taken their bare hands to a statue and crushed it like an egg.

* * *

The other astronauts were clapping in the videos. Everyone in his class went ballistic.

Literally ballistic, too; one of Yuzuriha’s friends named Nikki threw her eraser so fast across the classroom in utter shock that it matched the trajectory of an arrow at about 27.3 mph. “Oh my God! Senku, this is your dad, isn’t it?”

Senkuu shifted his head over. “Yeah, that’s him, alright.”

“I can’t say that I blame Lillian, he’s a lot hotter than you, Senkuu.” Nikki smiled, “Of course, I’m always a sucker for a five-o-clock shadow.”

“He’s also gotten pretty buff from all that astronaut training, too. Some of the gym photos show ‘em getting pretty jacked.”

“He has a rustic spice about him, but he’s also smart. He raised Senkuu on his own, so you know he’s family-orientated and doesn’t have issues with commitment. He has a steady job, too.” Another schoolmate gushed.

“Wait, weren’t you working on a bodysuit for him back in elementary school. You don’t happen to still have a model of that around, do you?”

“I’d prefer it if you don’t talk about my dad in front of me like he’s some top 10 movie star. Sweet Issac Newton, my old man is in his mid-forties! None of you thought he was hot before he hooked up with Lillian!” Senkuu’s face was beet red and sweat as he grasped his piece of chalk for dear life. “Alright, can we please go back to the parabola formula. It’s going to be on the final exam.”

After a frustrating pre-finals review, Senkuu left the school grounds on his own as he thought to himself. His arms were firmly planted in his lab coat. He pouted and scowled to himself, “Had I known that the main result of my old man getting into JAXA would be that he got to bang his favorite celebrity instead of getting some serious science work done, I wouldn’t have made that swimming suit-”

His monologuing was interrupted by Taiju and Yuzuriha. “Senku! Hey, congrats to your old man. Yuzu said that she’d make a custom tuxedo, so I kinda gave her your measurements. Sorry I didn’t ask you first-”

“Great, now even my two best friends wanna bang my future step-mom and by next school year, I’ll have to submit paperwork to change my name to ‘Senku Weinberg’. What a joke,” Senku groaned. “I even heard people are starting to fantasize about me, comparing my eyes to rubies! No one even cared about us before this!”

“Senku! You know I only love Yuzuriha. Also…you know I’ve always cared about you. Famous or not,” Taiju insisted.

“Then why haven’t you told Yuzuriha yet that you love her?”

“I…plan on it! I promise! After finals, and definitely by the time you get back from the wedding!”

“You better.” Senkuu gazed up at the sunset. He then high-fived his friend, “Don’t forget your summer homework assignment, big oaf.”

“I won’t!”

* * *

Getting to travel first-class was surreal, to say the least. Senkuu gazed out his window and calculated the seconds it’d take to get there or how high they were above ground by the centimeter. They transferred from Tokyo to New York to Huntington. From there it was an hour drive through the windy mountains that made Senkuu AND Baykuya nearly vomit from motion sickness until they finally arrived at Lillian’s hometown: Pickens, West Virginia. Population 40.

“Alright, y’all! We’re here.” Lillian turned to her fiancee and soon-to-be stepson.

“Here I thought the JAXA training was rough…,” Byakuya groaned.

“I figured I was going straight to Hell, but I didn’t think it’d be this soon,” Senkuu muttered to himself.

“GET UP!” Lillian kicked the car and shook them out of it. “Good grief, y’all need to build up some grit!”

“Darling!” A dark-brown haired middle-aged woman and embraced the pop singer. “Oh, I’ve missed you so much. I prayed for you constantly that you’d come back home.”

“Thanks, Auntie Turquoise!” Lillian jumped towards her aunt. “How’re Cousins Kohaku and Ruri? The trio o’ Ruby, Sapphire ‘n Garnet ain’t causin’ the sheriff too much trouble, are they?”

“Thankfully they’re not. Though boy is that Magma a whole wreck to deal with; he broke his DUI parole again yet he still drives through the town on his truck like it’s a NASCAR ring. He’s a headache.” Turquoise sighed.

“Turquoise…? Lapis Lazuli?” Senkuu sat up.

“There’s not a lot of people ‘round ‘ere so we don’t really bother with last names. We just go by our favorite stone. Lillian Weinberg used to just be my stage name for a while before I officially changed it in order to enroll in the ISS program. I’m the only person in this ‘ol town with a first and last name for a good while.” The pop star answered.

“The only person!?” Senkuu nearly choked.

“Why did you choose ‘Weinberg’?” Byakuya asked.

“There’s a town just a few miles north ‘o ‘ere called Helvetia that’s a huge tourist trap since it’s all about Dutch and German heritage. Auntie Turquoise used to get me presents from there craftsmen there all the time. I’ll always treasure that wooden music box y’all got me when I started my first period.”

“Well, I couldn’t help myself for my favorite niece.” Aunt Turquoise smiled.

“We can swing by there sometime on our way back to the airport. I get the feelin’ y’all have had enough twirling for today.”

“Yeah,"

“What happens if more than one person has the same favorite stone?”

“Oh, Pastor Jasper keeps a record on that. If that happens, they pick the same name of the stone but in a different language. That’s why Kohaku and Ruri aren’t called ‘Amber’ and ‘Lapis Lazuli’.”

“I-I guess.” Byakuya blinked.

“Well, what’re waitin’ in the car for? C’mon in!” Lillian picked both grown men up and carried them into the house.


	2. Couches & Buses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dr. Stone

The house was essentially two old mobile homes stacked on top of each other. There was no A/C, heating and worst of all there was no wi-fi. So that meant no nightly Skype chats with Taiju. There was electricity on the first floor and some indoor plumbing. The toilet was usable but the sink only provided cold water. There was a wooden outdoor staircase and patio that went up between the floors. The outdoors was paneled by dirt-stained white plastic. 

Byakuya and Lillian were to get the largest bedroom in the house which normally goes to Aunt Turquoise and her husband. Their children, Ruri and Kohaku, slept outside in the hunting camp. Senku got what was considered “the luxury treatment”–a new couch. 

“We got this as a gift for you, Senku. We know y’all be visiting a lot, so we wanted to you have a nice place to stay.” Ruri showcased the object. 

It was an olive-green, retro-style futon. 

“You could say ‘thank you’ by just buying a bigger house to accommodate all of these people in accordance to the fire codes along with plumbing from at _least_ the 20th century,” Senku muttered. 

“Senku,” Byakuya folded his arms. “Not everyone had the supportive upbringing that we did. In this country, things are a lot harder for those who aren’t as well-off.” 

“Fine, I’m sorry,” Senku sighed and sat down. 

“If you’re so against it, why don’t you let me sleep on it? It’d be better that way. Mom, I told you that Ruri should be the one to sleep on the new couch! She needs to be near that home remedy insulin Chrome cooked up for her diabetes so she’ll be well enough to work in the morning!” Kohaku turned to Turquoise. 

“Chrome…home remedy? Diabetes?” Senku turned as a fiendish smile formed on his face. He gazed over at Ruri, who stared back at him, confused as to why he looked so happy. _Now, this is getting exciting._ “What’s this home-remedy?” 

“Oh, Chrome’s been our best friend since we were little.” Kohaku answered, “He’s super-smart. He got a scholarship to study Engineering at WVU. He’ll be a freshman this fall. He’s been working on making homemade insulin pills for everyone.” 

Senku was caught thirty-seconds later scavaging through the drawers until he found a bottle with marker-drawn “TO RURI”. It had handwritten instructions and a detailed list of the ingredients in Sharpie. 

“Organic compounds extracted from local flora to create glucose chemicals and then transferred into a powder. Well, not bad, I’ll have to meet this ‘Chrome’ guy.” Senku smiled as he gazed at the pills. 

“Why don’t you just go to a regular doctor to get insulin? Shouldn’t that be covered? Diabetes is a very serious illness,” Byakuya asked. 

“Well, it should be…but…even with coverage insulin can still cost over $300. Most folks around here don’t have that.” Kohaku sighed, “Chrome’s trying to figure out if there’s a way to make a cheaper version that can sneak past the big pharma companies that have been upping the price over and over again just because they know its a necessity so we can’t say ‘no’ to them.”

“That’s absolutely disgusting.” Byakuya clenched his fists. 

“I know, but what can we do? Chrome’s our only hope right now…,” 

“Well, you know where I can find ‘em?” Senku asked. 

* * *

The one named Chrome lived in an abandoned school-bus outside of the local auto-shop in between Helvetia and Perkins. He and his grandpa Kaseki often worked alongside the Swiss artisans when they came in. His parents had both died from a heroin overdose by sharing needles when he was in elementary school. Kaseki was named the sole guardian. 

Since then, Kaseki taught Chrome everything about being a craftsman with the help of several Swiss artisans. Aside from his insulin pills, his greatest achievement was renovating an entire school bus to have central A/C, heating and even a working toilet. He still had to use the shower in the shop. He still had to brush the snow and ice off with a windshield wiper in the winter. In the summer he'd have to use a pair of grass clippers to deal with the foliage. 

“C’mon…this has to work,” As the flash remained silent. Chrome hung his head downward in disappointment as a knock came at the door. “What is it?” 

“So, um, tell me what YA dystopia world is this? Panem? Gilead? Or is it that one knock-off Panem that’s so concluded no one could keep up with it?” Senku asked the amateur chemist. 

“Well, according to the maps we’re actually in what would be District 12, so…it’s kind of Panem?” 

“Yeah, not sure how I feel about being related to Prim ‘n Katniss now.”

“You mean Ruri and Kohaku? Oh, are you that guy that’s marrying Lillian?”

“No, I’m his son.” 

“HIS SON!?” Chrome recomposed himself. “I-I heard that Lillian’s fiancee had a son, but I didn’t know he’d be as old as you are. You look only a little younger than me! How old was he when he had you?”

“I’m adopted.” 

“Oh, ok. That explains it.” Chrome nodded, “There are plenty of teen pregnancies around here, but from the word around here is that Byakuya was a super-smart professor, so he wouldn’t have gone out to made a mistake like that, even as a youngster.”

“He’s extremely stupid in plenty of other ways, don’t worry,” Senku smirked. 

“What other ways?” Chrome exited the bus only to be met by his guardian grandfather and the local sheriff. “Oh, gramps…and Sheriff Kinro. This is Lillian’s soon-to-be son-in-law, Senku.” 

“I’ve got to escort that damn Magma back to DUI court, so I’ll back this quick so I can charge my taser.” Sheriff Kinro looked up at them, “Turns out you and your father won’t be the only outsiders staying here in Perkins.” 

“Did someone leak the location?” Senku asked. 

“No, this guy’s car just broken down while he was trying to swerve to avoid a pothole. It clearly wasn’t designed to handle these hills, which makes sense. He’s a foreigner…name is…how do you say it?” Sheriff Ginro turned over to a man who was trying his damnest to get cell phone service as he paced around the lot of the autoshop. “Asagiri Gen, the mentalist. I have a show that’s rather popular in my home country of Japan–hold on, you’re not Senku, Lillian Weinberg’s new son-in-law?” 

“I am,” Senku sighed, “One, the wedding’s not for another three days. Two, I have other things besides ‘being related to Lillian Weinberg’. I’m top of my high school class and head of the science club. I built a rocket at 10.” 

“And your father was an astronaut,” Gen finished, “I read all the tabloids. I must say, for a man in his forties your father looks amazing shirtless. Those pictures from the JAXA training made me quite thirsty-”

“Ok, can everyone stop wanting to bang my dad?” Senku rubbed his sinuses. “He’s not as sexy as you think he is in daily life, trust me.” 

“No need to be jealous, Senku. You’re quite attractive yourself. I must say, in terms of both looks and intelligence you don’t fall far from the tree. Lillian has quite the eye, I must say. That sleek pelvis and five o’ clock shadow,” Gen held up a glossy poster insert from _Vanity Fair_ that had a shirtless Byakuya with the caption _Samurai in Space_. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of fans yourself soon enough.” 

“That’s not the issue. I don’t care if I have fans. He’s my _dad_! I don't want people jerking off to him!” Senku screamed. "He's.My.Dad." 

"Well, then...," Gen paused, “I must say I’m in luck! I never thought that I’d be trapped in the very town of Lillian Weinberg! I can’t wait to go to her wedding,”

“Wait, do you know him?” Chrome asked. 

“He’s a hack magician who has a daytime TV show. He’s like a Japanese Dr. Phil,” Senku replied. 

“Oh, my grand-aunt Alumi likes to watch Dr. Phil when she’s baking gobs for her crochet club at the church.” Chrome nodded, “Every Wednesday night she brings what gobs she and her friends didn’t eat over to my house and I have it for breakfast the next day. Her red velvet gobs are the best.”

“Your…house?” Gen glared in disgust at the bus. “You mean _this_? This is a dump! A literal trash heap!”

"Welcome to Perkins, _glad_ to have you." Chrome rolled his eyes. "Look, we don't have a hotel in town so you'll have to crash with someone. Helvetia's too far to get to without a car, also since you want to go to that wedding and see the love of your life get married to an astronaut."

"Whoever said the love of my life was Lillian? I'm a fan of her music, sure, but Byakuya is far more attractive."

"Again. Right here, people!" Senku scowled. "Now if you're done bickering like middle school girls, we have business to get to. How many of these can you crank out in a day?"

"A day? Usually half of a bottle," Chrome gasped. "I charge about $5 dollars for one of them. Why? What're you planning here? I refuse to make them more expensive than they have to be!" 

"That's not what I'm planning on doing. Quite the opposite, actually. We're going to get these to these out to every man, woman, and child in not just Perkins, but every other struggling small town in these godforsakenly windy hills. You with me?"

"You bet," Chrome fist-bumped his newfound science-buddy. "We're going to start with the nearest 3 towns before we move onto other places in the state. Get our toes wet. There are 40 people living here in Perkins, 59 in Helvetia, 132 in Selbyville." 

"Well, I suppose if I don't help, you won't be working on my car, will you?" Gen groaned. 

"Nope." The two science-users replied. 

"Rats, well I guess I have no choice? Oh, whatever will I do?" Gen feigned hopelessness. 

"So that's approx. 231 people. We'll make a batch of 250, just to cover ourselves in case something happens."

"Good idea. Though how're we going to go from 1 bottle in 2 days to 250 bottles in a few months?" Chrome pondered. "And where do we sneak this in without getting caught?"

"That's a good point. Places like this are pretty tightly-knit. Are there any major cultural events that connect us?"

"Well, now that you mention it...there _is_ the Randolph County Fair in two weeks." Kaseki pointed out. 

"That's right! We could slip around a practice batch to the other towns." Chrome then turned over to Senku. "Oh, and my grand-aunt Alumi probably going to throw a fit if her gobs don't beat out your aunt Turquoise's cupcakes, so...that's some drama. She's bringing some extra punch this year since she's going to develop some sugarfree gobs for all the diabetics to get extra votes. Turquoise has been using her sugar-free cupcake recipe for years to inch her out, but now she's stealing her technique." 

"Sounds stupid enough to pass as human behavior," Gen looked away. 

"Well, it's settled, we'll find a way to make 125 of these in two weeks and try to slide our way into the fair. Let's do this, everyone get excited!" 

Unbeknownst to them, the DILF of the year Byakuya Ishigami (nee Weinberg) hid behind a pole, listening to his son and new friends. A warm smile formed on his face. If his son Senku found friends, that means that he won't be as lonely during his summers here. He watched with a heartwarming gaze as Senku, Gen, Kaseki, and Chrome went about preparing their experiments to create new, more affordable insulin for the townsfolk. 

He had only been here for a day and Senku was already trying to use his science to help people. "It's good to see you haven't changed,"

* * *

Later on that afternoon, Senku returned to find his soon-to-be grand-aunt mended a few faulty stitches on the hems of Lillian's wedding dress. "I love you sweetie, but please stop moving." 

"I'm trying to stay as I still as I can," 

"Well, try harder. I'm going to be trying my hardest for this dress and for the upcoming Baking Contest." 

"Oh about that...did you hear that this Alumi lady is going to bring sugar-free gobs to the County Fair?" Senku casually mentioned as he twisted a cap onto another set of insulin bottles as Aunt Turqoiuse was getting her beloved neice Lillian's measurements. 

" _ **What?**_ " Aunt Turqoiuse glared over at Senku. 

"It's not a big deal, right? It's just baking. Not big deal." Senku shrugged. 

"It's ' ** _just_** ' baking? It's **JUST** baking!?" 

"You're hurting me, auntie! That's way too tight!" Lillian screamed. 

"Oh, sorry, darling." Aunt Turquoise turned to her terrified son-to-be grand-nephew Senku and her two daughters, "I'm going to make sure that woman is going to pay in the fiery BBQ pits of hell! I will not forgive her for outshining me at last Easter luncheon's potluck!" Turquoise threw a handful of thread spools across the room. 

"Someone help...?"


	3. Parking Lot Wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Dr. Stone

The general store of Perkins, WV was possibly the largest building in the town, spare for the local church that doubled as a community center. Though the church was the size of an old schoolhouse. It also used to serve as one until due to the population of the town and public funding from the state goverment decreasing, they were forced to fuse with the rest of the county into one district. 

The bell rung as a certain long, blonde turned her head to see who had caused the alert. 

"Welcome to Perkins General Store, my name's Ruri. Oh, Chrome...," Ruri paused as the budding scientist walked in. "So are you cooking up some more pills?" 

"Here," Chrome handed Ruri a bottle of homemade insulin. "It's five dollars. Just take it off of my tab. I'll be buying some stuff." 

"Of course," Ruri smiled. "Picking up things for Mr. Kaseki?"

"Yeah, this guy had his car break down and now he's stuck here living with us." 

"Sounds like the setup to a romantic comedy," Ruri blushed. "I hope I don't get jealous," 

"It _would_ be romantic if he wasn't a pretentious asshole." Chrome scowled as he glanced over at Gen who was busy flipping through one of the magazines. 

"Come now, I'm a mentalist. Sure I may be shallow, but that's a bit crass of you to say, don't you think?" Gen parted his bangs. 

"No, you just proved my point." Chrome followed up. 

"Y'know Chrome, I think this place would be ten-billion percent unbearable if you weren't around...let's see, what can accelerate the process? The selection here is pretty slim, but you can definitely contract glucose and a bunch of other materials from several of these items." Senku grinned. "We'll have to be creative, but that just makes things even more exciting!" 

"You only have beer, gin, and whiskey? And not only that, it's horrible quality! Coors? Bud Light? Heineken? Don't have _any_ wine of somewhat decent quality?" Gen glanced at the fridge of booze. "Well, at least you have Coke." 

"We have boxed wine in the back freezer," Ruri replied. "Just have to go grab the key from the cleaning closet." 

"Ugh, nevermind." Gen scoffed. 

After they had finished getting everything they needed, they checked out of the store. "Your total comes to $41.23. That's with the subtraction from the insulin pill bottle." 

"And there goes most of my old man's weekly paycheck," Chrome sighed. "Guess we're not going to the diner. Sucks. They're coffee's so good," 

"Don't worry, Chrome. This is on me," Senkuu handed her his credit card. 

"Oh, sorry, we don't take cards. Cash only," Ruri nervously pushed the card away. 

"What is this, the dark ages?" Senku asked. 

"We just have a hard time getting a signal out here for it to work. The electricity goes out all the time, so it's just easier." 

"Oh, ok. That makes a bit more sense." Senku folded his arms. "If only there was a better way to get electricity up here."

"The state has been trying to fund some wind turbine projects. It'll be a pain to connect them to every single small town, though. The mountains can be a blessing and a curse. I did one of my school projects researching them and I got first place in the country. Not that it says much to be first here," Chrome replied. "There's a few not too far from here! We'll probably drive past a bunch of them on our way to the Country Fair next week." 

"I did see a lot of them come to think of it. Huh, well this place has a bunch of little trinkets of interesting things, doesn't it?" 

"We do hope that you take the time to walk around the main drag. I mean, there's only really the church, the police station, a graveyard, an antique/clothing shop, a parking lot, and a diner. Though they all only take cash, so...sorry."

"Just that? On one street?" Gen blinked. "I saw that church! It's not big enough for THE Lillian Weinberg's wedding to the hunky Space Samurai!"

"Can you please not refer to my old man like that, thank you?" Senku sighed. 

"You're right, that's why it'll be in the parking lot." Ruri smiled. 

* * *

"A parking lot?" Senku asked his soon-to-be stepmother as she folded some clothes and placed them in the drawers of her dresser. "You're getting married in a parking lot?" 

"I thought you didn't care about romance," 

"I don't, but even a man as oblivious to it as me knows that a parking lot is the least romantic thing to get married in." 

"Well, it's the parking lot that I first performed my music in after my record player broke. It was the first place I discovered that I had a knack for music. I know it sounds weird, but that pothole-filled parking lot has a place in my heart." Lillian smoothed some of the wrinkles in one of the shirts she was folding. 

"Oh...well, if that's the case then I guess it's fine." 

"Byakuya said the same thing. It's funny how alike you really are," Lillian chuckled. 

"C'mon. My old man's a joke." 

"Senku! Are you ready for dinner?" Byakuya called. 

"Coming, old man." Senku cracked his neck. 

As they sat around the table, Turquoise shared how she was going about making the ultimate sugar-free gobs to beat her rival. She also talked about her progress on making Lillian's wedding cake now that her dress was complete. 

"You're really pulling all the stops." 

"Well, yes. Lillian was like the first daughter I had." Turquoise answered. "I want to do it right for Ruri's wedding."

"Mom-" Ruri blushed.

"You like that smart Chrome boy, don't you? Why don't you get with him before he goes off to college? Once he goes away, he'll never look back here. He'll think of you as a distant memory from some backward hick town. I want some grandchildren already! I'm almost fifty. Kohaku's going off to the military in three months so I'll never get to see her for a few years. I need someone to take care of. I can't stand being an empty-nester." 

"Mom, you're embarrassing me!" Ruri covered her face.

"This is exactly why I can't wait to graduate and head off to the US Marine reserve." Kohaku stuffed her face with squirrel-meat stew. "I've already completed all of the paperwork. I just need that diploma and I'm heading out." 

"Oh sweetheart, don't remind me. I'm going to cry so much. It makes me tear up just thinking about it. I'm so proud of you!" Turquoise smiled bittersweetly. 

"Please stop being sappy." Kohaku sighed.

"So who's going to be the one to walk you down the aisle since your dad's...well...," Byakuya paused with remorse as his fiancee looked down similarly. 

"I'll be doing it," Kokuyo replied. 

"It's hard, thinking about it. I've always cried at weddings, knowing he'll never be the one to walk me down the aisle or dance with me since he died from alcohol poisoning a while back. I guess everything's a little bittersweet," Lillian wiped her eyes. "H-He wasn't a good dad by any means, he beat me, got drunk, didn't have a job...but he was still my dad." 

"Everyone tried to tell him to get clean, but he never listened." Kokuyo shook his head. "Guess it is what it is," 

* * *

Finally, the day of the Parking Lot Wedding had arrived and in Senku's mind, it couldn't have had came soon enough. Byakuya stood in a tuxedo as all 41 residents + 2 outsiders (Senku & Gen) rose for the bride to walk down the aisle. Alongside her was Kokuyo. Pastor Jasper stood there as Lillian got up to the altar. Byakuya removed her veil to reveal two large blue eyes. 

"I'm so glad we got to be away from all the cameras, lights and all the paparazzi drama." 

"Me too. Drama's the last thing Senkuu needs right now while we're in this transtion period."

"When I was up on the ISS and I was pulling my diva act, I saw you burst out laughing. I think that's when I knew that I couldn't live a single day without you." 

"Me, too." Byakuya cleared his throat.

"Barf," Senku scowled with his arms crossed. "Just get this bullshit over with already." 

"Can we speed this up for my son's sake?" Byakuya asked Pastor Jasper. 

"Of course," Pastor Jasper nodded. "Do you, Lillian Weinberg, take Byakuya Ishigami to be your husband, in sickness and health, for good and for bad, till death do you part?"

"I do." 

"Do you, Byakuya Ishigami, take Lillian Weinberg, to be your wife, in sickness and health, for good and for bad, till death do you part?" 

"I do." 

"Then in the part invested in me by the State of West Virginia, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Now I must go home and fall asleep on my couch to a muted football game alone, snoring loudly with a beer in my hand. Just like God intended the Holy Sabbath afternoons to be spent," Pastor Jasper closed his bible and left.

Everyone got up from their cheap plastic folding chairs as they cheered and clapped for the new couple. 

The reception was as about as insufferable as Senku expected. He shifted through as he watched people come up to his newly-married dad and stepmother with the usual pointless small-talk. 

"Congratulations!" 

"You're both so cute!" 

"It's nice to have you back home, Lillian!" 

Lillian threw the bouquet and it landed in Ruri's hands. Everyone pounced on her and pushed her towards Chrome. 

"Hey-hey! I...just...well, your cousin's married now...so, this has been a pretty nice wedding." Chrome blushed. 

"Yeah, it has. How's your experiments with the insulin pills going?"

"We're making some headway thanks to Senku. It's great having some extra hands around,"

"Well, I can help if I'm not at work. I can swing by,"

"That'd be nice. I'd like to get to know Senku and Gen a little more."

"Senku's great, but are you sure about Gen?" Chrome glanced over at the mentalist grinning at him in a Joker-style fashion. 

"Well, this certainly isn't how I envisioned the international diva Lillian Weinberg's wedding to be like," Gen sighed. "I feel like I've been transported to the 1960s." 

"Tell me about it." 

"Well, I suppose we'll have to move onto preparing for the next part of the insulin-distribution project, shall we?" Gen smirked. 

"Yeah. The County Fair," 


End file.
